Meanings
-
1
noun
a smoothbore firearm designed to fire cartridges containing many small pellets or a single slug
She told them to send a farmhand to the barn with a shotgun.
-
2
noun
the front passenger seat of a vehicle
Maya called shotgun before anyone else reached the car.
-
3
noun
a narrow house whose rooms are arranged one behind another without a hallway
The family restored a nineteenth-century shotgun in New Orleans.
Thesaurus
Etymology
A compound of shot and gun, originally naming a firearm that projects shot rather than a single bullet. The front-seat sense comes from ride shotgun, referring to an armed guard seated beside the driver of a stagecoach. The origin of the shotgun-house name is disputed.